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My "Planning" (aka budget) data got trashed

joezano1

I use the planning tab as my budgeting and I set roll over balances at the end of the month.

When I sync using the Once Step Update it destroys my values and makes nearly every one of my categories have a negative value. I am quite sure this happens when I sync with the Quicken Cloud, not when I sync with my banks

Any idea how 1) I restore my values and 2) prevent this from happening in the future?

Many thanks!

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cpetrovsky

@joezano1

Apologies for my reflexive nod to Intuit in our conversation - it seems my fingers are still stuck in a Pavlovian loop from the old days. Of course, I haven't forgotten HIG's takeover in 2016. They were all about bolstering the engineering team and getting down to brass tacks.

But let's talk about the core database structure. It’s been as unchanging as the laws of physics. Remember the jump from DOS 1.0 to Windows 3.1? That was like putting lipstick on a pig – courtesy of Microsoft. And now, pondering over Quicken, one can't help but wonder: has the essence really evolved in the last decade or so? Sure, they've embraced the cloud - and that's a whole different topic - but the bedrock remains the same.

The comedy (and horror) of waiting for 2-8 seconds post-save to witness the 'gyrating windows' and 'not responding' messages before everything springs back to life is something out of a tech sitcom. Having dabbled in software development and worked with developers, I'm not holding my breath for a complete overhaul. But hey, fingers crossed that the bright minds at Quicken, Inc. (notice the play on words there 😉) can tackle these age-old bugs that have been our loyal companions for over three decades!

Cheers!

All comments

Quicken Jasmine

Hello @joezano1,

This could be caused by a data file issue.

First, I suggest restoring from a backup that was created before this issue happened with your budget.

Next, I suggest that you please try validating and/or super validating your data file. However, I do recommend that you first save a backup file prior to performing these steps.

Validate:

File
Validate and Repair File...
Validate File
Click OK
Close the Data Log
Close Quicken (leave it closed for at least 5 secs)
Reopen Quicken and see if the issue persists.

If the issue persists, proceed to Super Validate. If the issue is resolved after performing validation, then please disregard the instructions to Super Validate.

Super Validate:

File
Hold CTRL + Shift and click Validate and Repair File...
Super Validate File
Click OK
Close the Data Log
Close Quicken (leave it closed for at least 5 secs)
Reopen Quicken and see if the issue persists.

Please let me know how this goes!

joezano1

Still no go. Both Validate and Super Validate do the same. When I run either, it suddenly shows a bunch of past due items. Then when I sync it destroys all the stuff in my "Planning".

Note, (in case helpful for trouble shooting) if I turn Sync to Off (Edit —> Preferences —> Mobile & Web —> Sync: OFF then my "Planning" data does not get trashed. As soon as I turn the sync on again, my planning data gets trashed.

Ug, too many hours trying to sort this out :( …any help is greatly appreciated!

joezano1

And after hours of trying to resolve, giving up and re-entering all may data and making the adjustments so that data in Quicken reflects my reality with the banks I have Sync off. If I turn it on it trashes my Planning still. Is there a way to wipe out whatever in the syncing is destroying my planning? This has been a painful day of trying :~

Thanks!

Quicken Jasmine

Hello @joezano1,

I apologize for the trouble that this issue has been causing.

If you haven't already, I suggest resetting your cloud data from your Quicken desktop program and see if that may make a difference. However, before doing so, first, verify that the Dataset name and the File name match each other identically by navigating to Edit > Preferences > Quicken ID & Cloud Accounts (see below).

If they do not match, please click Edit dataset name and change the Dataset name to match the File name exactly the same (do not copy the file extension: ".QDF").

Then, click OK in the preferences window and proceed to save a backup (just in case). From there, please follow the steps below to reset your cloud data.

Sign out of your Quicken Mobile/Web app(s)
On your desktop program go to Edit
Preferences...
Mobile & Web
On the following screen you can leave the preselected option for "No, just reset my Cloud data", type Yes in the entry field to confirm, and click Reset
Wait for the sync reset to finish
Navigate to the Mobile & Web dropdown menu
Select Cloud Sync to resync your data and to make sure no errors occur
Wait for it to finish syncing
Sign back in on your Quicken Mobile/Web app(s)

Once that is done, see if the issue still persists.

Let me know how it goes!

joezano1

Hi, thanks for the detailed explanation … but I can't do what is requested.

When I go to the window you explain in step 5, I turn Sync On. When I click "Reset your cloud data", nothing happens and no new window pops up. I do get another window when I click on the link after "Accounts" and the link after "Alerts" … … nothing when I click the link after "Troubleshooting"

Thanks!

joezano1

Sorry, part II to what I stated above. My initial response I failed to do what you said about the data sets having the same name. Once I did that I was able to get the link after "Troubleshooting" to work. Unfortunately once I do the sync it destroys my planning data again :(

Oh boy, not sure where to go from here … :~

LarryG2020

Thanks for the post history… I encountered a similar problem and plan to call support tomorrow. I did figure out to back up to a data set which was before the problem occurred. But I keep getting my budget total changed incorrectly. I got an error message once that I exceede the 500 categories permitted… This forum is very useful so we can all share and save time. Thanks joezano1

joezano1

Does anyone have anything more on this? Seems like I should be able to just delete my cloud data. I am still having issues and can't figure it out

Chris_QPW

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20398871#Comment_20398871

The "Reset your cloud data" should have wiped out your cloud data and updated it with data from your Quicken Desktop data file.

There is another way to delete the cloud data, but it might be more "disruptive". As in it can affect things like your online connections for downloading transaction, bill payments.

The way you do this is by creating/opening another Quicken Desktop data file that has Sync to Mobile/Web on. The you can go into Edit → Preferences → Quicken ID & Cloud Accounts → Cloud accounts associated with this Quicken ID(x)

This will open a dialog that will allow you to delete the cloud dataset connected to your other data file.

Another way (very disruptive, but very "complete") is to use:

File → Copy or Backup File … → Create a copy or template

This will create an entirely different Quicken cloud dataset, but it will also disconnect all online services and they will have to be setup again.

As to the original problem, to me it is pretty clear that no one truly knows what causes the budgets to get changed/trashed, but most of the time when people talk about it, they mention that they are using Sync to Mobile/Web, which for some people seems to corrupt their data in various ways.

joezano1

OK, I have just lost too many hours of my life. After trying everything suggested and heck even stuff that wasn't suggested, I went an manually updated my "Planning" (Budget) to be the values for November that I had prior to the mess up.

Whatever happened was wild (and terrible!). For example I have a monthly budget of $210 for heating/propane. After mess up in the Planning data Jan & Feb were OK … but the data somehow said that my actuals for March were over $9000!

So net is I am fixed … after a tremendous amount of labor. I am quite sure this was not "user error" … Quicken should give me a year for free after having to deal with this nonsense.

Sorry for grumping … it has been way too many hours of my time. Thanks for "listening"

cpetrovsky

I have identical problem. Was losing my mind and after i started making daily backups, I identified that as soon as I synced to cloud, my budget amounts would get eviscerated! So, at this point, until Intuit identifies this as a bug, and fixes it, I will have no choice but to disable syncing. Its funny after 30+ years of using Quicken, we are still here like children trying to get cheap, off-shore developers, to fix these idiotic issues.

Chris_QPW

@cpetrovsky Just so you know, Intuit hasn't owned Quicken for many years. The new company is called Quicken Inc.

But for the record, I do blame Intuit for this mess which they put in starting in Quicken 2015. It is an uncontrolled, hidden process that hasn't worked right from day one. The "syncing" isn't visible or controllable by the user and seems to be able to change pretty much anything in Quicken including corrupting data files in various ways. It should have never been implemented in this way. I don't care if the customers were all demanding it or not.

joezano1

"cpetrovsky" .. this cost me many hours of my time. It seems to be working now and every day I am holding my breath. Thanks for sharing your experience … glad it is not just me, but sorry it is an issue at all

cpetrovsky

@joezano1

Cheers!

Chris_QPW

@cpetrovsky exactly and it seems that both the Quicken customers and Quicken Inc haven't come to terms with this.

In other words, they both push for "new and improved" into a structure that really can't handle it and frankly one that they don't even really totally understand. And their hands are tied, they can't afford to rewrite it. In the meantime, you have a product that is "feature rich", but isn't well maintained. The number of features that have been left to rot is pretty large.

What has really surprised me is that they haven't done more with Simplifi. It sort of reminds me of the way Intuit treated the rewrite of Quicken Mac. They worked from 2007 to 2010 (probably a very small amount of people) and then turned out Quicken Windows Essentials. Which was so lacking in features they couldn't really sell it. It took another 5 years before they put out something they could even charge for and start to phase out Quicken Mac 2007.

But maybe I'm reading it wrong because if Simplifi has already hit a "sweet spot" of customers to effort, maybe they don't want to fill out the feature set and make an "online Quicken (Classic/Desktop like) version".